Minecraft Awesome

Minecraft Awesome is a server hosted by FFStv and is used exclusively by VGA fans. Minecraft Awesome is home to the show's Build Challenges, as well as numerous communities where VGA fans can come together and build amazing things. The server was started shortly after three episodes of VGA featuring Minecraft were aired, with the Build Challenges following soon after. With the exception of the Stargate Mod and a few Administrative pluggins for Bukkit, Minecraft Awesome is a Vanilla server. A combination of whitelisting, administrative tools, and a dedicated staff of Moderators and Commissioners keeps the server relatively griefer-free.

To get whitelisted for the server, it is now necessary to become a member of the Turbo Club. Anyone who was whitelisted before Janurary 2012 does not need to join the turbo club to stay whitelisted.
For in-depth information related to the Minecraft Awesome server, such as individual communites, please see our sister site, the Minecraft AWESOME wiki.

The server has custom death messages submitted by users. To suggest a new death message, visit the forums.

The server restarts every four hours for maintenance purposes. If you see the console say the server is restarting, or you cannot log on during a restart, do not panic. Wait a few minutes and the server will be online again.

The server began on the 2nd of February of 2011. The spawn location, called Spawn City, was the first community built and featured some of the wildest and most creative builds on the server, featuring sprite art, monolithic towers, monorails, etc. Shortly later, a second town called "Old Port" was placed in a secluded location and reserved for builders who demonstrated creativity and were helpful to others. These two towns were the first episodes of Minecraft Awesome, before the Build Challenges began.

Over time, independent communities were built. These communities became more accessible with the introduction of the Stargate Mod, which allowed people to travel quickly from a central hub to Community or Private portals.

Fraser would occaisinally visit Minecraft Awesome on his own outside of shows, but did not always spend much time on the server. There were some community-created events he attended, such as the server WAR event.

The 1.0 map was closed in December after Minecraft 1.0.0 was released at Minecon. In anticipation, the Armada build challenge was created as a send-off to the old world and prepare for the new one. After Minecraft 1.0.0 was released, the old server map was made Read-Only, and a new map was created for a fresh start.

For one whole month, dubbed "RPG Month", players were forced to start all over again with no inventories, and no access to portals. The old map is still visitable by Stargate after RPG month, and is available for download via Bittorrent. With this fresh start, Fraser created the new world live on the Minecraft Awesome! Genesis! Episode, with the live creation of New New Spawn City.

Several communities from the first map sprang up as continuations of the old ones, such as New Old Port, Still Random, or Epsilon Team. Many other completely original communities were created over time.

Fraser began more casual tours of the server, for the first time bringing other VGA crew members like Becky and Ben with him.

The spawn point for all new players is "Crater City", also known as "New Spawn City". From there, The Hub is easily accessable, which has portals to every major build on the server. The server's map is enormous due to builders constantly pushing outwards.. Portals are used to make travelling easier.

The access point for everywhere else on the server. Each major build gets its own area, and has a special building surounding the portal, reflecting that build's theme. There are also some privately-owned portals in the underground. To purchase an underground portal, a builder must pay a moderator 55 diamonds. Above ground portals are reserved for special builds and large communities, and cost as much as 80 diamonds. For a complete list of all areas the Hub goes to, click here.

The main feature of Minecraft Awesome, Build Challenges always appear on a live show, and always have a particular theme to them. It is not allowed to build in a Build Challenge after the challenge is over.

Communities are towns started up by VGA fans. They can have a theme, or be free-builds. The founder of each town usually sets the rules for building in their respective areas. When not working on a live show, many builders work on their communities.

A Stargate just outside the hub leads to other worlds; this was originally constructed after the server was updated to 1.8 so that builders could use the new terrain generator to find strongholds, NPC villages, and abandoned mines more easily in a temporary world. This temporary world was shut down once the full game is released, and the World Gate was later used to link the Minecraft AWESOME 1.0 map to the current Minecraft AWESOME 2.0 map.

The new server was introduced in the Minecraft Genesis epsiode, a live show that debuted the live creation of the new spawn city. Everything on it is built after Minecraft version 1.0.0. In addition, the new server now has a sentient Console that sometimes talks back to players, often in sarcastic tones. Players have taken to calling him Mr. Console. Despite rumors to the contrary, Mr. Console is not Kshade.